The Salvation has the traditional plot
of an American western, from setting to storyline, except that it was made with
the sensibility and tone of its Danish filmmakers. There is a weightiness to
the revenge narrative that feels distinctly Scandinavian, despite the classic Wild
West setting, allowing for unrelenting bleak content to overpower some of the
crowd-pleasing spectacle. Nothing about the actual story may be altogether
original, but the approach is a wonderful blend of distinct cultural cinemas.

The Taiwanese
buddy cop TV series “Black & White” ran for a successful season in 2009,
followed by this 2012 prequel film and a subsequent sequel. Although Black & White: Dawn of Assault is
the first to be made available in the States, no previous knowledge of the
franchise is entirely necessary for its enjoyment. At its core, this is simply
a blockbuster popcorn film that doesn’t require a great deal of thought, but is
heavily rewarding in terms of spectacle. The only reason the previously
established television series is significant has to do with the amount of
chemistry that the cast already has with each other.

Throw in a few additional scenes of unnecessary
objectification of women with cheaper CGI bear attacks and this is exactly the
type of low budget fare you might expect to find on the same shelf as many
Asylum productions or Syfy Channel releases. The screenplay lacks any originality
and an over-use of stock footage makes it clear that the actors were never
anywhere near live bears, and yet Into
the Grizzly Maze still manages to stand above the rest thanks to a
surprisingly stacked cast. Despite the limited material, this cast keeps a
silly plot and amateur filmmaking far more entertaining than it deserves,
proving why a professional actor is an invaluable commodity. This is true even
in the films that are typically more interested in the carnage of its
characters than their believability. I’m not exactly certain how it happened
that this movie got such an undeservingly seasoned cast, but it ends up being
the only saving grace in the filmmaking process.

When there have already been far too
many sequels in a franchise, the next logical step is to combine it with
another overdone film series. Even in larger budget films, this has been
attempted over enough time, which is how we ended up with Alien vs. Predator and Freddy
vs. Jason. But despite Robert Englund in a supporting role, the Syfy
Channel original film, Lake Placid vs. Anaconda,
comes nowhere close to the quality of these theatrical releases. Instead, this
just looks like every other TV movie from this station, cheaply made in another
country for the lowest possible budget.

3 Hearts
is a tragic romance that is approached stylistically as more of a thriller by
filmmaker Benoit Jacquot (Farewell My
Queen), with highly charged performances and an ominous score by Bruno
Coulais. There is no real danger to the health or safety of these characters,
yet we feel that their very lives are at stake with the gravity of their
romantic passions looming over each decision. Melodrama takes the main stage
for much of this narrative, though it is a film which ultimately depends upon
the moments of romance as the glue that holds together the series of unlikely
coincidences that follow.

This double-feature contains a comedy and a
drama that couldn’t be more different in terms of plot and tone, but both are
tinged with a similar fantastical style from French filmmaker Alain Resnais. While
neither reaches the frustrating ambiguity of a film like Last Year at Marienbad or the weightiness of his wartime films,
both have the uncanny sense of experimentation running through them,
stylistically as well as within the narrative structure. One never knows where
Resnais is headed, however familiar his films feel in their approach.

Blending martial arts with a serial killer
narrative, Kung Fu Killer offers
brief genre-bending originality in its premise before settling into predictable
entertainment. There are some thrills to be found in the execution of the fight
scenes, but the narrative offers too few surprises to keep the moments
in-between entertaining enough to weave together a satisfying story.
Preposterously unrealistic and blandly predictable, Kung Fu Killer features decent action scenes that aren’t quite
memorable enough to outweigh the rest of the film’s shortcomings.

I liked Paul Blart: Mall Cop and I’m not ashamed
to admit it. It was silly but managed to be sweet, comedically taking a Die Hard plot by inserting a rent-a-cop
as the heroic protagonist. With this in mind, I don’t want to say that I had
high hopes for the sequel, but certainly didn’t anticipate the quality to drop
so significantly from the first film. From the beginning sequence that destroys
every aspect of the happy ending we were left with at the close of the last
film, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 is
illogical and overly silly in its desperate grab for quick laughs.

My Beautiful Laundrette is a classic
kitchen sink 1980s slice-of-life drama from Stephen Frears (Philomena), though the film’s lasting
success owes a great deal to the breakout performance given by a young Daniel
Day-Lewis. Having made A Room with a View
(1985) the same year, critics raved at the actor’s range, though it is clearly
his performance in this film which leaves the most lasting impression. It is a
bold performance in a movie that is about the acting and the characters far
more than the plot, which often meanders without clear direction.

The battle of
superheroes at the box office occurs each summer, and occasionally in-between,
but this overly-popular genre has recently bled into the world of television as
well. Much of this is a way for the largest two comic book franchises to
continue their narratives on the small screen, with more and more Marvel and DC
shows popping up each year. Simultaneously there has been an increase in
original entertainment from some unlikely places. Earlier this year we saw the success
of a Netflix comic book series with “Daredevil,” but even the unlikely format
of the PlayStation has entered the game with a series based on a graphic novel
not belonging to either of the two powerhouse comic contributors.